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San Sen Three Lines Watch Design

Sam says: “The insipration for this watch came while sketching. I like the idea of the wrist surrounding line which changes in the case region of the watch to show the time. This time I wanted an uninterrupted line and an analog watch reading.

There are several lines seen on the case. The straight lines are the hour hand (the one closer to the center of the case) and the minute hand (the one closer to the edge of the case). There are also circle segments. Those are decoration only and mediate between the hands and the wrist surrounding line. The time line is accompanied by other two lines which follow the watches’ visible edges and which frame the display are so it does not look so alone. There are in-glass indicators along the imaginary circle between the hour hand and the watch hand. They mark the hours respectively five minute steps. So if you imagine that indicator circle you just have to look: the straight line pointing inwards shows the hours, the one pointing outward shows the minutes. The display shows many different states, so LED would be possible but expensive. A dense LED layer on top of an illuminated plane is likely.

I think people who like it visually artistic and futuristic could like this watch. The analog reading is not something for everyone, but giving that a fresh appearance could appeal.”

I actually think this would appeal to a lot of people. I like the one line simplicity although I feel it’s quite plain and a little lacking in character. It’s certainly one for the minimalists out there.

Hm yeah, I know what you mean. It’s just flat and nothing else – I like that alot ;) It is an integral decision: I’m trying to tell not too much but the concept’s base intention. I could dare a bit more and see what I get for the… next but third time. Thanks alot for your point of view!

From a time telling standpoint, I would be concerned of what the watch would look like at 6:30 and 12:00(straight line?) it seems like the design would break at those times. Perhaps thickening or brightening the line where the hour/minute hands are?

From a strictly design standpoint I love this watch. It knows what it wants to be, and it does it very well. The red on black reminds me of something Darth Maul (the only genuinely interesting star wars prequel character) would wear when he’s jetting around the galaxy with his double light saber.

I gave it a 5/y for the brilliant execution of the design. A couple minor tweaks and this thing would be ready for production ;D

There is some practice necessary to get a feeling for the watch times. Here is a display of the requestd times.

There are some rules which ease up reading. You see the ring of indicators? The straight line inside this ring is the hour hand. The straigt line outside this ring is the minute hand. Hour and minute hand are always connected by a circle segment (lying where the indicators lie). There are times, that line is super short. The last rule is: The watch hands are also connected to the incoming lines by circle segments. Those always lie in- or outside the middle circle and can be zero in lenght too, depending on the time. Man, that sounds so difficult. I could write a novel abou this. These special times are tricky since thee connecting circle segments are not seen. But they are there ;) Well practice is the key.

I do like the combination of red and black (and white). I like it since I know the fairytail of Snow White who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. Thats a very strong combination. “It knows what it wants to be” Good you see that. I concentrated on the intention and let the simpleness speak for it’s own.

The light line version is a bit trickier. Light Tape or Light Sheet could be used for the lighting. They are slim and flexible. They could be used for the display background and for the decorative borders. The display itself can be made with LCD too. It has to be very dense, I’m not sure if that can be done. Small LEDs or even a LED display with a good resoluton are possible but way too expensive and error-prone. An alternative to a covering LCD layer could be an analog shutter system. I’m thinking about that…

I admit, I’m sometimes pretty idealistc. But it could be more utopic even ;)

To get the look as you have it in the renderings above you would need to have the same material that is used to display the time running down the strap or it would kill the one line effect I think. Regular LCD won’t work would never get that effect which is very cool. Flexible LCD maybe, but not sure on how the colors are for the LCD. They are often very dull for the flexible LCD as well segments can’t cross themselves and due to the many segments there maybe visible gaps between each segment.

For the light tape do you mean like an electroluminescence strip then face in LCD? EL can only have up to 21 segments controlled by the IC at all the factories we have talked to. We are looking into a new company that makes very small electronic toys to discuss new technology that we can use for the designs as the watch industry is extremely limited in what they can do.

These designs are good to look at to try and find a way to make these cool designs a reality. Some technology may require a very large MOQ and engineering fees as well.

Ok, as for the same material in the pure LCD version, I think an embedded black line in the plastic straps can made looking like LCD on plastic. That would be a darker gray. I’m not sure though :) If that would work, then only LCD (non flexible) is needed for the case, if the watch is rigid in the case region and flexible only where the straps are. But these visible gaps are mean. E-ink does not have these gaps so maybe that would be an option for this version of the watch.

The light line version… I’m not sure about the meaning of EL segments controlled by an IC. The Light Tape I mean looks like a homogen long flexible strip. The trick would be to make it round in the case area and slim in the straps. The wide case tape would get covered by a layer of LCD then. When pressing a button, the light and the LCD switches on at the same time. But then we still have the thin gaps between the LCD parts. Maybe that could be compensated with another LCD layer. Or… maybe I could play with these gaps… I’ll render an image with them.

…….as the TF-design-studio noticed, the watch is additional in the twilight zone. Sam, I finished my butterfly/watch/mp3/lighter “Masato”……..wonder TF is ready for it?
Succes with finding a manufacturing in time.

I had an orgasm LOL, it’s brilliant everything is so perfectly done it’s just amazing. Im happy TF has asked for these watch. Great job Samu-sama, reading the time is really easy despite the coincidence of the male organ that they pointed out up there. Also the black and red style is fantastic, but if the really make this watch i will love to see a black and green style. Very very futuristic and i love that, with this watch you have just fullfilled my expectations of how a watch needs to be. I would give it a 6 or 7 but TF only lets me give 5 lol.

God lord, jesus christ and holy world, that version is SO cool, thanks a lot. It’s a great honor you felt that way, thanks alot for all the effort you put on to the watches, and i wish you a lot of luck and hope one of your designs gets into production. I really think that if TF does this watch it will make this website one of the top reference sites in innovation and creativity. Only good word appear to my head about you, the website and the other designers. Thanks alot. :)

I wasn’t 100% sure about the sheer simpleness of the geometry. If I sit alone in my room, with no feedback, I just don’t know where I’ll end up in other peoples opinions. When I sleep a night over it, I can see more clear. And when I still like the watch, I’m ready for judgement :D Well I could’ve used some feedback concering the feasibility because I’m pretty idealistic for this watch. That’s where this blog gets in. The trick here is, to find an affordable technology which can make it look as good as this concept. Let’s see what the future brings…

As your brain works graphic raleted you might have been thinking about permanentely illuminated circles wich are simply masked out by an analogue mechanism (i.e. segmented discs) ? These also might carry that short illuminated line wich closes the circle segments perpendicular.

Yeah I thought about this. This analogue meachanism segments have to be able to change the width because the blacked out part always has a different size. Maybe cleverly placed discs could do it… Like corkscrew stairs steps…

But you gave me a hint. You said “permanentely illuminated circles”. That is plural. I actually thought about one circle plane masked out by an LCD layer. That would look like this. But when I use three thin circles and already segmented LEDs for the minutes and hours, then I could get trid off the thin light gaps. Those gaps separate the LCD segments and are technically unavoidable as fas as I understood. But when the LEDs are already segmented (by using separate LEDs or one big illuminated plane with a segmenting mask made of thin plastic), then the LCD segments could cover them fully, without leaving light gaps. In other words: the light gaps can be masked out before the LCD layer plays its role… I feel we get closer…

Oh yes, the male/female idea is very good. And you are right, it is all about the straps then. Slim and curvy for the women, wider and a little edgy for the men. In this watch, I tried to find a middle way between the different widths, the curviness and the edginess. But a separation wouldn’t harm that bad.

I made a rainbow color overview of the watch here. I think red, blue and green are already the best (thanks all for the request) but orange can’t be denied ;)

Hmmmm you mean the whole watch or the certain parts of the display? As for the display: It has to show a good contrast between void and covered area… As for the watch: The light line watch looks best with an opaque black I think. The pure LCD version could be almost fully transparent though… I made a similar watch which is partially transparent. It is coming soon (I hope). But maybe you meant reflectivity. Oh yes, I like the black glossy plastic which gets cut by a red line. I hope this can be made. I also look at it again and again to think about how the display could work.

Sam, I feel the need to approach glass……that is what your watch did to me. The whole design stays close to your base: the avatar-sign (black/red)………after all the comment above: take a deep breath and let it go down, down, down.

……..after your result: be in perfect happiness with yourself deep inside. After that moment, you are open again for new bright ideas. To often I keep staying to close to what I am doing, stepping away, creating a distance gives new vieuws of your further steps. Bye Sam.

Very beautiful watch Sam, I fell in love with your work after seeing the Matrix style watch, which by the way is still on my list of “NEEDS TO BUY ASAP”. I love your work because you always incorporate the strap as being just as important as the watch face itself. Keep up the good work :)

I like this a lot, but I don’t know how you would ever get those lines to match up so flawlessly. I don’t think we have the technology yet. It’s very cool, I would buy this design if it were possible to manufacture. Of course, I would also buy a ray gun and a flying car if those were available too.

I just can’t take my eyes off this watch!!..I completely love it and would buy it in an instant if its made available.. Black with orange…that’s the watch I’ve been looking for!!I’m a girl but I like the strap width as it is… Simplistic to its core-dats wat it is for me!

Nishtha, that’s nice. Then I did well with my middle way between manly wide & edgy and female curvy & slim. And I’m glad this watch has the effect you’ve described. Thank you very much!

The making available is pretty tricky for this watch. I made an image of a possible LCD based watch. The LCD segments are technically necessary… But this does not look too bad actually. And it is orange ;)

Great, that mean guy finally voted you down to 4.0 Sam. I am sure this is a single person, because all other people love this watch. Or 20% of all the users on here really, I mean really really hate this watch (based upon an excel calculation I made) Honestly, no way!!! I watched the ratings carefully this time. It is highly unlikely to reach a 4.0 with the current mood here. There is someone out there agressively voting 1 star again and again. Tokyoflash said they know everything but they don’t do anything. Maybe they cannot do anything. Maybe the ratings are indeed that unimportant and all I say is for nothing. This watch is at least a 4.5, possibly a 4.7! I cannot ignore such criminal energy. I am accusing this rating behaviour until this got fixed. Sorry to abuse this panel for my bad message. But that mean guy just has too much time to vote against you and that makes me sad. So I will use my time to point this out. I love this watch! When I see it, I want it so bad. I could understand if people don’t like this watch, that is just natural. But where are they, where!? I honestly wish you all the success you deserve Sam.

Aphosno, this is still the best place to talk about, don’t worry. The 4.0 is indeed a little astonishing. On one hand I’m not afraid, since this watch seems to be a hit already and “only” the feasibility is a problem. On the other hand I can only shake my head and let it happen. Yeah not everyone likes everything. I also wished that I could have a written justification for the downvotes. Thanks for taking care.

Speaking from a designer’s standpoint, I’d rather see my design steadily increase or get rejected outright. This situation where the ratings start out great and then steadily decline is infuriating. Best of luck to you Sam.

This is an absolutely gorgeous design and would work very well for both men and women. I would buy this in a heartbeat if I had the option of getting one in Orange, Pink, Blue or Purple. Good luck and I really do hope your design is chosen!

@ Oliver: Thank you Oliver :)
@ Tim: Yaaaay! I hope you checked this. Thanks for commenting!
@ Davis: It’s ok to call me Sam ;) Let’s cross fingers for this watch to be made, cause I’d like to have it too. Thank you for the comment!

Seems you wasn’t :P Hey cool that you mention the LED possibilties! I’m thankful for anything that could inspire Tokyoflash how to make it (assumed the people want this watch of course). I can see that finding a balance between price and look has to be found and that it is extra hard in many of my optimistic designs ;)

Nice name btw, sounds like the german unit for Leistung. Ich grüße einfach mal in deutsch, hehehe.